Local Control, Renter Protections and Transportation: The Rest of the Session

This is Part 3 — the final installment of our three-part recap of the 2026 Georgia Legislative Session. (Read Part 1: The Homelessness Bill That Passed and Part 2: What Happened to Georgia's Affordable Housing Funding.)

This post covers the broadest set of issues we tracked: local control tools that would have empowered cities like Sandy Springs, protections for renters and families and a last-minute overhaul of metro Atlanta's transit governance. A common thread runs through all of them: the state is limiting what local communities can do, even as local challenges grow.

1. Preserving Local Control

Sandy Springs residents know Sandy Springs best. This session, we tracked measures that would give our city more tools to manage housing — but none of the key local-control bills crossed the finish line.

• Rent regulation: Bills to repeal Georgia’s restriction on local rent regulation (HB 299 and SB 106) did not pass. That means Georgia cities still cannot adopt local rent-control policies.

• Waiving impact fees: HB 1233 would have allowed local governments to waive development impact fees for certain affordable or workforce housing projects without increasing other impact fees to offset the lost funds. It stalled in the House after the second reading.

• Property taxes: Property tax debates continued this session, but the measures we tracked did not produce a clear statewide housing affordability win.

At the same time, lawmakers did pass broader measures that will affect how local governments manage growth, including SB 447, which creates new rules for how local governments process certain permit applications. That underscores a broader reality: many of the local-control tools that could help cities address housing challenges did not pass this session.

2. Stability for Renters and Families

Two of the bills we flagged earlier this year moved forward — but neither made it all the way.

• Homelessness prevention (HB 689): This bill would have established a homelessness prevention program through Georgia’s Housing Trust Fund for the Homeless. It passed the House 148-11 on February 25, but the Senate tabled it on March 31.

• Extended-stay hotel protections (HB 61): This bill was heavily amended during the session and was ultimately tabled in the House on March 31. Because the public bill summary still describes the original motor-vehicle license-plate subject, this section should be verified against the final committee substitute before publication.

Other housing proposals also fell short. SB 463, which would have restricted business enterprises from owning interests in more than 500 single-family residential properties and restricted foreign investment vehicles from owning single-family rental property, passed the Senate but did not receive final House passage. HB 1166, which concerned local zoning decisions for residential dwellings of 400 square feet or fewer, passed the House but did not receive final Senate passage. Those outcomes leave major questions about affordability and housing supply unresolved.

We did not see a clear legislative breakthrough on foster-youth housing aid this session, though the broader conversation about family stability remains active.

3. Transportation: A New Local-Control Issue

This was not on our original watch list in January, but it became one of the most consequential stories of the session — and it matters for housing.

In the final days before the session ended, lawmakers stripped HB 297 (originally a bill about off-highway vehicles) and replaced it with sweeping language that restructures how metro Atlanta governs its public transit. The bill dissolves the current Atlanta-region Transit Link Authority and replaces it with a new Georgia Transportation Efficiency Authority. The current 31-member board, which included local representatives, is replaced by a nine-member board appointed by the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and legislative leaders.

Why should Sandy Springs residents care? Because transportation and housing are inseparable. Where transit goes, development follows. And the decisions about who gets to make those choices — state leaders or local communities — have a direct impact on how our neighborhoods grow and whether they remain affordable and connected.

Separately, proposals to impose an eight-year waiting period before communities could retry failed transit sales-tax votes were also part of this session's broader push toward tighter state control over local transportation decisions.

What Happens Next

The Governor’s May 12 deadline has now passed. Some bills we tracked became law, including HB 295 and HB 1199. Many others stalled before final passage. The question now is how these outcomes will affect Sandy Springs and what tools local communities will have going forward.

Here is the big picture from this three-part series: this session showed just how tightly housing, transportation and local decision-making are now connected. The bills that advanced tend to take power away from communities. The bills that would have given cities more tools to address housing needs tended to stall.

That is why our work continues. Whether it is advocating for affordable housing funding, defending local control or making sure Sandy Springs residents understand what is happening at the Capitol, we will keep showing up.
Want to make your voice heard? Contact your state legislator and let them know that safe, stable and attainable housing matters to Sandy Springs.